Beyond written words
by Vanishing Trooper
Summary: There have been so many stories where a different being replaces Saito. But what if YOU were the one taken there, summoned? How would you handle it? How would you REALLY react to something like that?


...

I generally blame this sudden and honestly insane idea on playing Disgaea 4 nonstop for four days and only managing to get to the middle of chapter 4 because I hypergrind too much for levels and money. I've been obsessively trying to get all my characters to level 50 so I can unlock all the classes I could and generally make the first half of the game as trivial as possible. However, going through the motions of that has led my mind to wander around as I surf the net while level grinding in the second stage of chapter 4.

I was reading random fanfics from various series that seemed interesting and a thought suddenly hit me.

I have never written an SI fic before.

I had been adverse to the idea originally because I had no idea how to go about doing so. I have read several SI stories, some were really well made but most were mostly self wish-fulfillment. The SIs sometimes end up overpowered as the story progressed depending on what kind of power they need to save everyone. Then there are the SIs that stay underpowered and are generally far more interesting to read about. I had made OCs and written alternate character interpretations but I have never once considered putting myself into one of those fics...until my sleep deprived psyche started giving me ideas...

So it happened that I started wondering what would happen if I were the one that was pulled into this world? How would I react to such a situation knowing what I know and having the life I had prior to it? Well, it started out as just a bunch of random notes on notepad and slowly but surely gained coherence lest it slowly decomposed in my brain and corrupted my other ideas. So, here it is out in the open before it gets any worse than it already is.

Disclaimer: I blame everyone for this.

…

Have you ever wanted to become a hero? The protagonist of your own tale, your own adventure so to speak? Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be 'the guy'? Regardless of genre, everyone has at least wondered what it would be like to be the hero or heroine of their favorite stories. I was not immune to such a desire when I was young. Watching old cartoons and anime growing up such as Raijin-Oh or Swat Kats or Street Sharks, or The Centurions, I wondered what it would be like to live your life everyday as an adventure.

Then I grew up and realized how much trouble such a life would be. Desiring such a thing for yourself would mean that you would forever lock yourself out of a normal life. It may not sound like much but the grass is always greener on the other side.

I understood and accepted that but I never really grew out of loving those kinds of stories. I couldn't draw my way out of a wet paper bag using stick figures, so instead, I started writing. I found that I quite enjoyed it. A short experiment here, a one-shot there, romance, adventure, comedy, I tried to write what I could based on what ideas popped into my head.

Then I realized that I suck at trying to write a story from scratch. Creating my own characters, world building, making a believable and enjoyable plot...doing all that while I was inherently lazy was taxing to say the least.

Then I started reading fanfiction.

I pretty much started reading them as a kid back in the late nineties after our school got internet connection. Since it was the late nineties, I was reading Ranma, Sailormoon, Dragonball Z, Cardcaptor Sakura, Slayers, Rayearth, Gundam W, and Ah! My Goddess fanfics to say the least.

The years moved on and the quality of fanfics started to rise and fall depending on the writer and the series in question. As my scope of exposure increased to more and more series, the number of fanfics I started reading increased as well.

I tried my hands on writing a few fics of my own. Vandread, Maria-sama ga Miteru, Touhou, all were instrumental in improving my writing and letting me develop my own style.

Then I read a certain crossover fanfic about two particular series. One was Fate/Stay Night, the other was Familiar of Zero. The title of the fic was Hill of Swords.

That was not the very first time I've read a fic about that concept. I remember back in oh-eight or oh-nine where an author tried to cross those two series by having Louise summon Shirou Emiya who also had Counter Guardian EMIYA's personality inside him. It had an interesting start but it never really got off the ground.

I stumbled upon Hill of Swords while rolling around the site back in early November of twenty-ten. Like everyone else who managed to discover it, I was hooked. I rode through the story and treated it as a fun retelling of Familiar of Zero with Shirou as the familiar. I don't need to tell anyone that it was what eventually inspired me to write Be Careful What You Wish For, Guided by the Light of the Moon, and Not as Planned.

I have to admit, I'm having a blast writing about Familiar of Zero using characters like Yuka, Luna, and Karin as a replacement for Saito as well as trying to put my own spin on the events and characters therein.

One would think that given a chance, would I want to be the one that Louise Francoise Le Blanc de La Valliere calls through the summoning portal? Would I want to be 'the guy' in a story like that and all that it entails?

Honestly, no. As much as like Louise and her world, I have a life and I'm perfectly happy with it.

Unfortunately, the Universe likes being a dick sometimes. I just never expected that I would be a valid target for it. Or maybe it was just firing randomly and I just happened to be at the right place at the wrong time.

...

I was heading home from another day of work. My job's been hard for the past couple of weeks but I genuinely enjoy the work I do. I got off the bus and was walking the rest of the way back to my house, letting my mind wander around like it normally does when I take walks. Some of my best work came about thanks to walks like that. I then scowled when I remembered that I haven't gotten anywhere with the rest of the new chapter of 'Be careful what you wish for' thanks to work and Disgaea Four. I had ideas, and I'd already posted roughly around half of it on Spacebattles to have them give me a prelim assessment of it before I do the rest.

The readers were hilariously split on whether or not putting the harem protagonist ball solely in the hands of Touya Hakurei was a good idea. On one hand, the ideas the thread brought out were hilarious thanks to contributions from Jomasten, Flere, and several others. On the other hand, this was a story about Yuka and Louise and adding Touya's harem antics in Gensokyo wouldn't add anything constructive to the story.

I was considering a compromise between the two, while worrying about the aftermath of the match between Yuka and the two Valliere sisters. Namely, how to get Cattleya into Mugenkan without making Karin and Eugene go on a rampage. Or having them do so anyway and have it end awesomely or horribly or something utterly silly and hilarious.

I was contemplating on such things when I barely noticed something I should have noticed earlier.

There wasn't anyone else out tonight.

Granted, it was running nearly midnight but I was used to at least have some people either hanging out or walking around. To put it simply, it was quiet. Too quiet.

I suddenly felt a very odd feeling. A foreboding one. You know, the kind you get when you know something bad was about to happen. That stupid sinking feeling at the bottom of your stomach. Yeah, that one. I then felt something akin to a mild static current touching the back of my head. I only felt it on my head because I had a backpack on and thus by back was covered. I turned around and my eyes widened.

It was a portal. There was no other way to be able to describe it other than that. A blue glowing oval piece of two-dimensional impossibility was right in front of me and I didn't know what to do.

There are a lot of people out there, especially those who frequent the internet that don't just use it for Facebook all the time, can and likely will claim to be Genre Savvy. I myself have claimed that at times. However, being faced by a situation wherein such knowledge would normally save you from a world of hurt and inconvenience...it just didn't work that way. Instead of my running the hell away from the glowing blue portal, I did what any self-respecting human would really do. I tried to touch it.

Human curiosity never works the way you want it to.

By the time I realized how utterly stupid I was for doing what I did, it was already far too late.

I had sometimes wondered if that portal had some sort of sentience to it. I wondered that because the very first thing it did was send out a blue tendril to cover my mouth with, preventing me from calling out for help. When it latched onto my arms and legs, I pretty much knew I was screwed at that point. Sure I flailed around like an idiot in panic for all the good it did for me, but in the end I still go sucked into that thing.

So much for grinding in Disgaea for a couple of hours before calling it a night.

...

Have you ever been anywhere near an explosion? Like an actual 'Kaboom' kind of explosion and not something like fireworks going off? I ask because the very first thing I experienced after I got pulled into that portal thing was my entire body being shaken up to all hell and my ears being subjected to the loudest thing ever. I concluded it to be an explosion because, when I opened my eyes, I saw nothing but smoke.

I coughed a few times because of the smoke and I felt sore all over. I somehow still noticed that I had my backpack on, so that was something. I tried to breathe but the smoke just made me start coughing again. I was still sore even as I tried to stand back up but I at least confirmed that nothing was broken and I wasn't bleeding...as far as I could tell.

After my ears stopped giving me that stupid high-pitched white noise thing, I finally heard something that I could recognize. It was laughter. A bomb just went off and I could hear a bunch of people laughing their asses off. I would have thought that I was being punk'd if it wasn't for the fact that I was just pulled into some portal and the fact that the sun seemed to be out right now. I pulled out the handkerchief I had in my back pocket and used it to cover my nose and mouth. It wasn't much, but it let me started breathing again in relative comfort. I started walking forward while using my left hand to try to fan away the smoke. I finally managed to get out of the smoke field and took in a few deep breaths of clean air. I had my eyes closed for the act so I didn't notice anyone around me. I suddenly opened my eyes when I noticed the laughter cease.

Kind of wish I hadn't.

Dozens of stories, over twenty-five threads -with at least five-hundred posts each- on the Spacebattles Forums Creative Writing Index, and countless other discussions on other boards and such have described this scene ad nauseum. I was starting to feel nauseous as well as my mind tried furiously to try to prove or disprove the reality that was seemingly in front of me.

Right there. Right in front of my very eyes, looking at me with the same haunted expression I was having, was Louise Francoise Le Blanc de La Valliere. It was unmistakable. Unmistakable?

I immediately looked down to my arms and body and felt around with my hands. This can't be real. None of this can be real! None of this is real! I blinked at that train of thought and immediately checked on something. I breathed a sigh of relief when I could see my feet when I looked down. At least I wasn't in some weird Half-Life Two mod like the Stanley Parable or something. I looked back at my hands and wondered if I was supposed to be two-dee or three-dee while I was here. The moment I tried to reason that out, my head suddenly throbbed horribly. I immediately clutched my head with both my hands and the pain eventually died down. Shit, do I have a brain hemorrhage or something?

I looked up when I heard the very distinctive voice of the pink haired girl in front of me. It's really her. I knew, intellectually, that she was supposed to be two-dee but my perception of her was that of a three-dee object. I winced when my head started to throb when I tried to reason that out again. I should stop doing that for now. I was hoping that I could understand them right off the bat, but no dice. It looked like I was going into this like Yuka did, minus the gender bending thank goodness. That meant that I was currently hearing Louise speak fluent pseudo-French...using Rie Kugimiya's voice. Talk about surreal. Then again, to quote Oxnard Montalvo from the Angry Beavers Halloween Special: 'Anything is possible, if it happens.'

After turning back to Professor Colbert, who urged her to go on with something, Louise frowned at me before pointing her wand right in my face. Yeah, this part. Another string of pseudo-French later, she put her wand down. She glared at me irritably because I was standing at around five-foot seven and she was probably at a measly five-foot three or less. Seriously, she could fit inside the largest attaché case in Resident Evil Four with room for a couple of Health Spray Cans. The girl apparently had enough of the whole deal and decided to grab my shirt and use her body weight to pull me down so she can seal the contract.

Well...let it never be said that kissing a fictional character was impossib-

"Aaaaah! God fucking dammit!" I suddenly screamed out with great gusto. It was at that moment that the other part of this scene decided to make itself known, namely the part where the Gandalfr runes get etched on my left hand. The problem was, the runes weren't being etched so much as being branded onto my flesh. The insane amount of pain that came with it was more enough to make me step back a few feet and eventually just fall over and curl up like a wounded animal. My left hand felt like it was being pressed against an iron pot filled with boiling water. The familiars that have gone through this in other stories have been downplaying this pain. A whole fucking lot! It was the single most painful thing I have EVER experienced in my entire life, so much so that I was practically crying because of it. Despite the pain, I managed to at least look up to the hand in question. I had my right hand clamped over my left wrist in a stupid attempt to try to either dull or redirect the pain.

The back of my left hand was smoking! It was fucking smoking!

It went on like that for lord knows how long until the burning pain finally went away, and all that was left was the throbbing of my left hand. I looked back at my hand and saw that illustrators and animators of this series were copping out. The runes didn't look like any sort of tattoo or light abrasion on my skin. My skin was cooked, plain and simple. The damage looked like the burn that Superboy Prime made on his chest when he etched the Superman logo on it using his laser vision. It wasn't pretty and it stung like fuck.

"Haa...haa...haa...haa..." I could hear myself breath in and out through my mouth. I stood back up slowly and wiped the sweat off my face with my right hand. I looked back to Louise and saw that she was looking at me with what seemed like worry. Colbert was looking at me the same way and took it a bit further by walking up to me and inspecting my hand.

"Oooow!" I let out as the older man inspected the runes on my hand, not giving a single fuck about how much the action could have hurt me. He looked between me and the runes a few times before muttering something I couldn't understand. Probably about how he couldn't understand what the runes meant or something. He finally let my hand go and turned back to Louise before saying a few things in a light hearted tone. Based on what the scene was supposed to be, he was probably complimenting Louise about one-shotting the Contract Servant spell.

Everyone started laughing at Louise again, their action making me turn to them. It was still surreal as all hell to see the core cast of the series right there in front of me. My head complained about how absurd it was for Tabitha to have actual blue hair. I played it off as a 'whatever' since cosplayers in Comiket can pull off some awesome stuff as well. I shook my head when I saw Kirche. In person like this, I was starting to understand why the guys in the academy wanted to tap dat. I mean, damn! Monmon looked really weird with her forehead and hairstyle while Guiche looked like the typical European pretty-boy. Figures. I glanced up and saw Sylphid on one of the towers. She was far away but she looked kinda like a Pixar or Dreamworks dragon instead of a Skyrim one. That was good. I blinked when one of the students suddenly obstructed my vision. I finally noticed that everyone was floating away. I kept forgetting that they can do that since no one ever did it again in the series as far as I could remember.

I looked back to Louise and found her muttering about something while looking down on the ground. Since she couldn't use levitation on herself, she was pretty much the only person on the field aside from me. She finally turned to me with that signature scowl of hers before yelling at me in Halkeginian again. Still weird hearing it with Rie Kugimiya's voice. The loudness of her voice up close was enough to make me wince and lean away from her. The young woman huffed at me before gesturing with her head to follow her.

"Hurm..." I Rorschach'd a groan before adjusting my backpack and following her. I knew what was gonna happen next and I wasn't looking forward to it. It wasn't like I had any choice or had anywhere else to go at this point. If I wanted to be able to understand and be understood...I had to take one of Louise's explosions in the face.

I liked it better back when this thing happened to someone else.

...

Same sequence as the first part of Be Careful What You Wish For. Louise led me up the dormitory tower of the academy, all the while keeping her hostile facade and glaring anyone who got in her way into oblivion. There was one thing I noticed during the walk that I never really noticed or took into account when I wrote about this series. The whole interior smelled like wood. Old wood. Which made sense I suppose.

Louise reached her room and opened the door before sitting down on her bed with her arms folded in front of her. Obviously she was waiting for me to enter the room as she glared right at me.

I walked in and closed the door, felt weird as all hell without a door knob or a lock. Louise immediately went on the offense and started pelting me with seemingly harsh words in her Kugimiya-fueled attack. I simply sighed at what she was doing and tentatively touched the back of my left hand with the palm of my right hand. I closed my eyes in relief after I didn't feel any pain from it anymore. I glanced back at Louise when she started barking out at me with short, clipped words. Probably asking me to respond or something.

"I have no idea what you are talking about. No comprende." I stated in English while shaking my head. I knew what was coming and I tried my best to prepare for it mentally. She shouted at me a few more times and I returned the favor with a slew of English. She obviously didn't understand what I was saying so I ended up chanting Unlimited Blade Works at her a couple of times before she finally had enough and pointed her wand at me. I grimaced at the thought of the pain I was about to be subjected to. It didn't disappoint.

"Great Scott..." I muttered, expecting Louise to understand me by now. Strangely enough, the blast didn't blow me back like I thought it would. I didn't know why since I was fairly certain that Newton still had a good hold on this realm. Regardless, the force of the blast I took felt like I just got slammed with a tackle...on the entire cross section of my body. It wasn't nearly as bad as the blowtorch treatment I had a while ago, but it still knocked the wind out of me something fierce. It took me a few hard tries just to be able to breathe again. God damn...how did Saito constantly deal with this shit?

"That serves you right for spouting such incomprehensible nonsense!" At least it worked just like the way I had hoped it would. Though I now had to deal with the weirdness of hearing Rie Kugimiya's voice speak in fluent English. I looked at my clothing and noticed some soot on it. Probably from both explosions I've been exposed to thus far.

"I heard that." I stated, making Louise gasp out.

"I can understand you!" Just like a script. I decided to play along for now lest I invite the wrath of the damn horse whip of hers. Then again, she only pulled that out after Saito turned into Mister Bad Touch on her. I still didn't get what that idiot was thinking when he tried to go down on Louise like that.

"And I can understand you as well." I responded in a chill way, taking a page from Yuka's book. If this sequence was following that story, then I'm gonna follow it as best I could. Yeah right...me trying to pull the shit Yuka did in my story was impossible for me.

"I don't understand! Why can I understand you now? That wasn't what I intended at all!" Louise exclaimed, completely forgetting that she should really have an indoor voice in these situations. I closed my eyes and pursed my lips at her yelling. I was never good with anyone yelling at me. It just rubbed me the wrong way. I took a deep breath to calm myself down. It's not her fault...it's just how she grew up to be. With that in mind, I looked at her and gave out a friendly smile.

"Silencing spell?" I asked with a bit of a grin. Going hostile on her would be counterproductive at this point. Especially since all signs point to me being stuck here for an indefinite period of time. I saw her brow twitch at my words. Louise actually looked pretty cute up close when she did that.

"Silence commoner! Don't dare to assume that you can just back talk to a noble like that, even if I summoned you!" She went back to her mandatory tsun-tsun side before standing up and putting her hands on her hips to demonstrate her superiority over me. I was so over this dialogue sequence it wasn't even funny.

"Yes, Ma'am. I apologize if I offended you with my words and actions. However, as you can see, I'm not exactly from around here." I pointed out as I put my arms out wide before slowly going around in place so she could take a good look at me.

I was just going into my mid-twenties with black, slightly messy, hair that was almost reaching to my shoulders because I was too lazy to go to a barber shop and get a hair cut. I just shaved the night before so I only had the barest hint of any stubble yet so that's good. Last thing I wanted was to be in this situation with a full 'stache and a goatee. Basically, I had the potential to either look like a hippie, a hipster, or a pirate in no particular order.

I had a simple blue baseball shirt with orange sleeves on. Think Shiki Tohno's shirt whenever he's home in the original Tsukihime Visual Novel but with a blue and orange color scheme. I also had faded blue jeans and an old pair of black on red Reebok Basketball Shoes. My backpack was just a normal sized one with another red and black color scheme. The contents of my bag are nowhere near as nice as Saito's were. I only had a jacket, a stainless steel mug, a small retractable spring loaded umbrella, a small notebook with a pen, my wallet, and my Nintendo DS Lite. Yeah, I don't think I'll be getting much use of my DS for too long. It probably has like four hours of battery life tops...and the only game I had on me was Super Robot Taisen W anyway.

"Hmmm...yes, your clothes and things don't look like anything I've seen in Tristain before. Where are you from, commoner?" Jeez...asking that even before asking me my name? No wonder a lot of people like to bash Louise in other fics. Well, I was at the point wherein I can either tell the truth or just bullshit my way through this conversation. It wasn't like she could disprove my claims...or take them seriously for that matter.

With that in mind...

"I am from a faraway country...a very far one based on what I've seen so far. The place I am from is known as Minas Tirith, in a country known as Gondor. You have never heard of them, have you?" I stated before asking her if she knew about those places. Of course she didn't, that was why I folded my arms and leaned back to prevent myself from laughing out loud hysterically.

"No, I haven't. So, what should I call you commoner?" Ah, the million rupee question. My answer will likely make or break the rest of my stay here, like naming your main character in an RPG that supported such a feature. I immediately resisted the urge to call myself Lonk, Lunk, or Dongs REO Speedwagon. Such stupid names are off the list since this will be what I will be known as in this realm from now on.

"Hey! I asked you for your name, familiar!" Louise's voice snapped me out of my thoughts and-

"Stephen Hawking!" Shit! What the balls brain?

"Stephen Hawking? That is an unusual name for a commoner..." Louise muttered to herself. Oh well...at least she didn't say that it sounded stupid.

"Obviously a name that has no importance whatsoever." She added with a sigh and a shake of her head. Hey now, no dissing Hawking! I gave out my own sigh and decided to move the conversation forward.

"If it isn't too much trouble, would you mind explaining what exactly happened to me? Where am I and what is going on?" I asked the mandatory questions in hopes that Louise would finally realized that she just kidnapped a guy from a completely different country, or world as it were, and would normally not know jack about the situation. The noble gave me a 'hmph' before sitting back down on her bed.

"I suppose some introductions are in order, Stephen Hawking. I am Louise Francoise Le Blanc de La Valliere. You are currently in the Tristain Magic Academy in the country of Tristain which is located in the continent of Halkeginia. I summoned you as my familiar during the Springtime Familiar Summoning Ritual. That means that I am your master now. Understood?" She explained pretty much what I already knew in the first place. At least there aren't any drastic changes to the underlying plot when I got here. I am still never going to get used to hearing that voice speak English though. It isn't even broken Engrish either. It was actual fluently smooth English. Amazing.

"Wait...master? Since when? I didn't agree to anything." I stated with a small frown. It was hard trying to play the part when you already knew a lot more than what the actual cast does. That, and I've never been good in acting in general. I can lie through my teeth using a poker face just fine. But actually acting? No way. That was why I was trying to use as little expressiveness as possible.

"You speak as if you have any choice in the matter, commoner. Those runes on your hand prove that you are now my familiar and I am your master. It is as simple as that!" Louise answered while pointing at my left hand. I took a good look at it and the scar still didn't look pretty.

"That's a bit heavy handed, don't you think? And what's with calling me a commoner all the time? I already told you my name." I asked with a raised brow to trigger the next conversation flag. I just hope I was asking the right things at the right time. Last thing I wanted was to experienced unnecessary pain because I messed up the dialogue choice. Damn...I was actually treating this like an eroge. An eroge with no save points...great. I didn't manage to catch Louise scowling at me because I was stupidly wondering how the Eleanore or Agnes routes would probably play out.

"How dare you question the ritual! You may be a foreigner, but that doesn't mean that you can just insult a noble like that! Mind your words familiar!" Louise yelled out at me, offended at the fact that I didn't seem to hold any regard to a ritual of a country I should have no knowledge about. Yeah...Louise has a poor logic rating at the start of most stories for some reason, and it looks like it bled into what I was going through as well. I decided to do damage control at once. A pissed off Louise is not what I needed right now.

"Whoa! Easy there ma'am! Sorry about that. But as you said, I am a foreigner from a completely different part of the world. I wouldn't know your customs just like you wouldn't know ours. Since that is the issue at hand...would you mind explaining to me instead? It will probably be less stressful for the both of us." I explained in a diplomatic manner, hoping that Louise at least had some shred of logic that overrode her personal pride. The girl narrowed her eyes at me and huffed before nodding.

"Very well. It is within a noble's power to explain the wonders of our society to an uneducated foreigner such as yourself." Louise proudly declared with a confident smirk. Oh gods...did I just lure out a different kind of Louise for this talk?

...

I had heard and read it so many times I was almost tempted to just give out a summary of the whole thing just to shut her up. The actual lecture about the summoning ritual and the supposed teachings of Brimir that were tied to it was a lot longer than I remembered. Hell, I'd written scenes about the explanation of the familiar bonding between a mage and the summoned. However, hearing it in person...it was just boring. Hell...I could have given her a much more detailed account on Brimir's life thanks to the novel summaries that Flere gave to everyone in the Back to Basics thread in the Spacebattles forums.

I had dutifully listened to Louise throughout the whole thing and clarified on a few points, such as how much responsibility the mage has over their familiar. I had some theories on that based on what I've read, seen, and written...but hearing it from the very person in question was worth a lot more points than all that combined. The answer was pretty much what you'd expect from a contract between a mage and a familiar.

The familiar is bound to the mage for the rest of its natural life and is expected to put its master's orders and well being before anything else. In exchange, the mage is responsible for the health and well being of the familiar as well as its actions. The mage must treat its familiar as an extension of their own being and all that it entails. So, it was pretty much what most authors have expected when writing fanfics for this series.

The entire exchange took up whatever daylight was left and the sun had just set a few minutes ago. I was wondering what time exactly I dropped in here when I suddenly remembered another sequence that should happen. I turned back to Louise and sure enough, saw her lazily stripping off her uniform. Now, I'm nowhere near innocent or pure enough to say that I was adverse to seeing Louise strip nearly naked like that before she changed into her negligee. I'm a guy who has been on the net for over a decade. I've seen the nude filters for the promo art for this series and I've certainly seen the doujins. Therefore, seeing Louise strip in front of me didn't have as much impact as I thought it would. Of course, it was still very stimulating, but I was still able to control myself when it came down to it. I didn't have the desire to go 'Oh my god! Delicious Flat Chest!' and relive those mindbreak doujins. That would just be stupid. If I was going to relive any doujins, it would be Vanilla ones.

"I'm tired, familiar. Take care of the laundry and make sure to wake me up at dawn." Louise muttered tiredly as she climbed up to her bed to sleep. I scanned the floor that had her clothes strewn around on as well as the pile of hay that I was expected to sleep on. Right...

I gathered her laundry in a basket and set off into the wild unknown of the dormitory hallways.

"Shit..." I muttered as I looked around to try to discern which way to go. The usual thing that happens here is that Louise's familiar 'wanders around' until they either bump into Guiche and Katie or they bump into Siesta. Unfortunately, I didn't have such a convenient sentence to help me with that. So instead, I just tried to retrace the steps that Louise and I took to get to her room. My progress was minimal because the halls all looked the same and the stairs seemed to spiral down to forever. It didn't help that the whole place was being lit by just magic candle light.

I moved my shoulders around to get my backpack into a more comfortable position before grumbling forward. I descended a couple of more floors, I think, before getting out onto a hallway that was a bit wider than the previous ones I've walked through. I was hoping to bump into Siesta since I have no idea how to do laundry without a washing machine and detergent. Besides, befriending her early on will be a lot of help later on.

"Ummm...excuse me, can I help you with something?" Speak of the devil. I turned to the source of the voice and saw Siesta approaching me. Just like Louise, it was weird as fuck to hear Yui Horie's voice speaking in fluent English. I'm going to have to deal with a lot of this aren't I? I shook of the odd feeling and decided to get down to business.

"Hello there! I'm the guy who was apparently summoned by Louise de La Valliere as her new familiar. She sent me out to do some laundry but...I have to be honest, I don't know how." I introduced myself to the maid before wincing after admitting my inability to do a common household chore. What? I have a washing machine at home dammit! Looking closer at Siesta, my brain complained again when I tried to reason if she was supposed to look Japanese or not considering her Grandfather so I just let it go. And yes, her chest was every bit as huge as it was in the anime. Good lord...

"Oh! I see! I was wondering why I have never seen you before. Welcome to the Tristain Magic Academy. I am a servant here. My name is Siesta." The young woman introduced herself with a polite bow. I never did figure out what her family name was supposed to be. I gave her a smile and a nod before returning the introduction.

"Nice to meet you Miss Siesta. I'm...Stephen Hawking." I resisted the urge to grimace when I remembered that I just locked my name as Stephen Hawking for the duration of my stay here. Well, there were always worse names I could have picked.

"It's nice to meet you too Mister Hawking. Would you like me to take care of those for you? I can just bring them back to Miss Valliere's room once they are done." Siesta offered with a smile. Score. Might as well go through the rest of the sequence if it's going to follow Be Careful What You Wish For's.

"Thanks a lot. I still don't know right from left here, so can I get some directions?" I asked after giving the maid the basket of clothes.

"Of course, I can give you a quick tour before I take care of these." Siesta offered with a smile. I obviously took her up on that and I quickly had a small grasp of how the structure of the academy was actually like. I was amazed that the garden I came up with for the entry point to Mugenkan actually existed.

I bid farewell to Siesta before I finally managed to get back to Louise's room after an indeterminate amount of time. I MADE SURE that it was Louise in the room before entering and closing the door. I really didn't need a huge misunderstanding with any of the other students so soon...or at all really. I took off my backpack and placed it on Louise's desk. I glanced at the pile of hay beside Louise's bed and quickly decided that there was no way I was sleeping on that. Instead, I sat down on the chair that was near Louise's desk and rested my head on the wooden surface, using my bag as a makeshift pillow.

"What now?" I asked myself as I stared out the window. The events were moving so fast that I didn't even get the chance to honestly reflect on my situation. I was just jacked out of my own world and into Familiar of Zero's world, that much was undeniable now. Now I had the potential to live a life of adventure, shenannigans, and possibly even romance. I had the chance to be able to meet and maybe even befriend my favorite characters here like Eleanore and Agnes. I can make a new identity here and a brand new life in Halkegina.

I sat back up straight and opened my bag to take out my DS Lite. I made sure to lower the volume all the way down before turning it on. I continued the quick save I made and started ripping apart the ZAFT forces at Jachin Due using the Tekkaman Blade units. I sighed as I knew that I won't be able to enjoy this for much longer. No video games. No internet. No television. No manga. No comic books. No more writing my stories.

I won't be able to finish the Fate/Zero anime.

I won't be get the chance to play Neptunia Mark-Two, Tales of Graces F, or Armored Core Five, Mass Effect Three and god knows how many other games.

I won't be able to roll around Spacebattles anymore.

I won't be able to finish reading Sleeping with the Girls, From Fake Dreams, He Who Fights Monsters, Keys to the Heart, Minds, Memories and Misfortune and a ton of other fics.

I won't be able to keep writing my fics anymore.

I won't be able to go back to my job.

I won't be able to hang out and mess with my friends.

I won't be able to go back to my family.

I won't be able to go back home.

"Fuck..." I hissed before turning off my DS and putting it back in my bag. I covered my eyes with my left hand as the full weight of my situation finally hit me at the back of the head like a sack of Double-A batteries. I grit my teeth as I failed to stop the tears from coming out of my eyes. The things I had just lost these past few hours far outweighing what I had potentially gained.

I just wanted to go home…

…

This is just a one-shot. Just an experiment to try my hand on making an SI fic. R&R if you want but I won't go any further with this.


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